A wedding cake is booked months ahead, priced in the hundreds, and made from ingredients you buy the week of the event. That gap between saying yes and getting paid is where cake businesses get into trouble.
A deposit closes it.
What most cake makers charge
There is no single right number, but the common range is 25% to 50% taken at booking, with the balance due one to two weeks before the event.
Where you land inside that range usually comes down to how far ahead you book:
- Booking under a month out — 50%, sometimes payment in full. You are buying ingredients almost immediately.
- Booking two to six months out — 25% to 33% is typical. Enough to hold the date meaningfully.
- Booking a year out — a smaller fixed booking fee, say $100, then a staged balance. Asking for 50% of a wedding cake fourteen months early puts people off.
A deposit that is too small does not do its job. If someone can walk away from $25, the date was never really held.
When to ask
Ask at the moment they say yes, not later. The deposit is what converts an enquiry into a booking — it is not an administrative step that follows one.
In practice that means your quote should say what the deposit is and when the balance is due, so nobody is surprised. A quote that ends with "let me know!" invites a delay. One that ends with "a 30% deposit holds the date, the balance is due two weeks before" gives them something to act on.
Non-refundable, and say so
Your deposit should be non-refundable, and the customer should know that before they pay, in writing.
This is not harshness. When a wedding cancels eight weeks out, you have already turned away other work for that date. The deposit is what compensates you for a date you can no longer sell.
A humane middle ground that many cake makers use: non-refundable, but transferable to a new date within twelve months if the couple postpones. It protects you against a lost weekend without punishing people for things outside their control.
Put the terms on the quote itself. Not in a separate document nobody opens.
The balance is the part that actually goes wrong
Deposits are easy — people are excited, they pay. The balance is what gets forgotten, because it falls due weeks later when the conversation has gone quiet.
Three things make it reliable:
- A fixed due date, set at booking. "Two weeks before" is a rule. "Nearer the time" is not.
- A reminder that goes out on its own. Not one you have to remember to send.
- A way to pay in one click. A bank transfer request needs the customer to open their banking app and type a reference. A payment link needs a tap.
Chasing money by hand is the single most avoidable job in a cake business, and the one most likely to be skipped on a busy week.
What this looks like when it runs itself
In Bake Boost you set your terms once — say 30% deposit on the invoice, balance due 14 days before the event. From then on, every new order builds its own payment schedule and sends:
- the deposit request when the invoice goes out
- a chaser if the deposit goes unpaid
- a balance reminder before the event
- a delivery or pickup confirmation the day before
- a thank-you and review request afterwards
You set it up once and stop thinking about it. Customers pay online through Stripe, Square or PayPal from a link in the email.
It is on the Growth plan and up. The docs walk through the setup: how do I take a deposit and get the balance paid?
A quick checklist
Before you take your next wedding booking, make sure you can answer all five:
- What percentage is my deposit, and does it change with lead time?
- Is it non-refundable, transferable, or both — and is that written on the quote?
- What exact date is the balance due?
- Who sends the reminder, and when?
- How does the customer actually pay — link, transfer, or in person?
If any answer is "I'll sort it nearer the time", that is the one costing you money.